Introduction:
Plextor has a big history in producing top quality products. Their first CD-ROM
was released back in 1990 (when the company's was still named "Texel Corporation"),
and their first burner appeared in 1994. From 1994 till nowadays Plextor have
produced many readers and writers, and many of them have made it to the bestseller
lists. Plextor was the first company, which shipped a 12/10/32 ATAPI CDR-W drive
with "BURN-Proof" technology. Plextor goes one step ahead from the
competition and ships it's first 12/10/32 SCSI CDR-W with improved "BURN-Proof"
technology. Hmm.. <Improved "BURN-Proof" technology? What does
this mean?

First generation of "BURN-Proof" technology ensured
that the distance between the 2 sectors lied at around 40µm (i.e. well within
the limits set by the Orange Book), and in this way fully corrected data was
written to disc.

Can this improvement be called crucial for the users? According
to Plextor NO:

"....Plextor considers that comparing Gap length of BURN-Proof
between 40 um and 2-5 um is meaningless, as the length is well below 100 um.
Any gap below 100 um will be automatically corrected by Error Correction System
(ECC) built in any CD-ROM drive or CD Player. No user will ever recognize nor
feel such difference when reading data or hearing music from recorded CD-R/RW.
Therefore, Plextor does not consider difference in such gap length between our
PX-W1210A and PX-W1210TS as an improvement..."

We think that it is an improvement since the drive uses the latest
build of "BURN-Proof". Might also want to hear what Ricoh has to say
about previous "BURN-Proof" build...:

".. Usually, with other technologies,
a gap around 40µm (a data blank) is created, whereas Just Link
gaps are always less than 2µm. One would not expect
C2 errors to occur at 40 µm, when talking about
12× writing speed but-to visualise-, if the current
writing speed doubles to 24x, the link would be 80 µm long.In thiscase, one would not be able to negate the
possibility of error. In contrast, even with 24x writing speed, Just Link allows
sufficient margin with a link section no larger than 4 µm. In
other words, the Just Link method has the scope and flexibility to cope with
whatever writing speed.."

Confused? Don't be! Both 'BURN-Proof" and "JustLink"
technologies are producing perfect CDs. As long as the length gap stays below
100¥m, from the last successful sector to the new sector, there won't be any
noticeable fault to the user or won't affect the data at all.

Package:The retail version that arrived at our offices included the drive (PX-W1210S),
a manual (in 12 languages!), a quick installation guide which gives important
info for the people who find reading the full manual a bit boring, 2 blank CDs
(one recordable and one HS RW erasable), an audio cable, and software:

all that's necessary to get started right away. The Plextor manual
needs some improvement especially for the novice user. The CDR media was exactly
the same (Ricoh) as in the PX-W1210A retail package. However the HS RW media
now comes from Mitsubishi:

Let
know see the front of the PleXWriter PX-W1210S. As you will notice nothing really
have changed in the front of the drive exept! one new logo is added from previous
PX-W1210A model (BPRec logo) which also showed in the new Sanyo CRD-BP1300P.
Probably which shows the new improved build of BURN-Proof:

The drive still has 4 leds, which show what exactly the drive does:

CD-R

CD-RW

CD-RW HS

L

1x, 4x, 8x

2x, 4x

-

H

12x

-

-

L+H

-

-

4x, 8x, 10x

In the back of the drive you will notice the
extra fan, which will keep the drive cool even when you use it in a high
temperature environment. Don't forget that this machine is also aimed for Pro
use ;)

- Installation:Installing
the PleXWriter PX-W1210A was an easy process. We changed the SCSI ID from 4
(default) to 1. During boot-up, the BIOS identified the drive as Plextor CD-R
PX-W1210S. We then made some minor configuration changes to Windows ME. These
were: disabling auto-insert notification and checking Sync Data Transfer. The
supplied drive was manufactured in September 2000 and the onboard firmware revision
was version 1.00. We didn't use the bulked WinOnCD and PacketCD/DirectCD for
our tests. We used Nero v5.0.2.4 and Prassi abCD for all tests.

However, we installed PlexTools v1.06,
since it offers some helpful information to the user and allows certain setting
tweaks. With it you can change the drive's properties (spin-down time, speed
selection, lock/unlock of the tray, etc.). Other useful features offered by
PlexTools are the ability for data CD Copy, Digital Audio Extraction, AudioCD
authoring plus CD-Text option. A must-use for the Plextor user!